This invention relates to an improved element management system for interfacing between a telephone system and a service provider such as a telephone company, to maintain information as to subscriber services and subscriber line configurations. A telephone system is a type of network, and includes network elements such as central offices or groups thereof in which telephone computer systems control corresponding portions of a telephone switching network in accordance with subscriber requirements and subscriber line configurations.
Subscriber services information may include such items as class of service (e.g. business or residential), call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, the billing plan desired, the long distance carrier desired, the maintenance plan desired, etc. Subscriber line configurations may include such items as the number and types of lines at the subscriber""s home or business, which equipment at the subscriber""s home or business is owned by the subscriber and which equipment is owned by the telephone company, the type and location of the equipment, information as to leased lines, etc.
In a typical telephone system, well over a hundred, and sometimes a few hundred parameters may be needed to describe the services and line configurations for a single subscriber.
As telephone networks normally have large numbers of subscribers, the amount of data as to subscriber requirements and subscriber line characteristics (xe2x80x9csubscriber dataxe2x80x9d) is large. Since the telephone computer systems must give priority to controlling switching functions so that the telephone system operates with high efficiency and minimal xe2x80x9cbusyxe2x80x9d time, access by telephone company customer service representatives and other personnel to subscriber data is relatively slow, and the subscriber data is updated at relatively long intervals. Thus the information available as to subscriber data does not reflect recent changes and may therefore be inaccurate, and there is sometimes an inordinate delay in implementing changes desired by a subscriber.
To provide a more responsive interface between one or more (in some cases as many as several hundred) central offices of a telephone network and telephone company customer service representatives or other telephone company personnel or systems, an Element Management System (xe2x80x9cEMSxe2x80x9d) is frequently utilized. Such an EMS maintains subscriber data in a database which can more quickly and accurately respond to queries from telephone company personnel or automated systems without significantly degrading the switching performance of the telephone network. However, existing EMS units lack sufficient responsiveness to meet desired performance levels.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved Element Management System and method for interfacing between a telephone system and a service provider such as a telephone company, to more expeditiously maintain and change information as to subscriber services and subscriber line configurations.
A further object of the invention is to provide a database in the EMS which reflects up-to-date data respecting the network element(s) that the EMS manages, such that the data contained in the EMS database is a functional copy of corresponding data utilized by those elements of the telephone switching network which are managed, at least in part, by the EMS.
A further object of the invention is to provide a capability for synchronizing the data stored in the database of a particular EMS with the corresponding data utilized in the network element(s) involved, when the network element data is changed by portions of the telephone network, or associated personnel, independently of the particular EMS.
A further object of the invention is to automatically detect changes in the data stored in or utilized by the managed element(s) of the telephone switching network which corresponds to the data stored in the EMS, and to update the EMS database accordingly; with the frequency of detection of such changes and the frequency of updating the EMS database being separately configurable for each network element.
The present invention provides an improvement to a network element management system which communicates information from a telephone switching network to a client system.
A proxy database stores data respecting subscriber requirements and subscriber line information. A bidirectional network interface arrangement couples information from at least one element of the network to the proxy database, such element having an associated subscriber data storage means.
Initialization means initializes the proxy database by storing in said proxy database subscriber data corresponding to subscriber requirements and subscriber line characteristics received from the associated subscriber data storage means via the network interface means.
Database updating means is coupled to the network interface means for repopulating the proxy database with, current subscriber data stored in the subscriber data storage means associated with the network element to update the data in the proxy database.
Query means is responsive to a query signal from the client system to retrieve corresponding data from the proxy database and communicate the same to the client system.
Database synchronization means serves to synchronize the subscriber data stored in the proxy database with the corresponding subscriber data stored in the network element.
As herein described, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention there is provided, in a network element management system for a telephone switching network, an arrangement for communicating information from a telephone switching network to a client system, and for communicating configuration commands from a client system to the network. The arrangement includes a proxy database for storing data respecting subscriber services and subscriber line configurations, and a bidirectional network interface for coupling information and command signals from and to at least one element of the network.
Initialization means is provided for initializing the proxy database in a bulk mode at the startup of the element management system, by storing in the proxy database data corresponding to subscriber services and subscriber line configurations received from at least one network element via the network interface means. In response to command signals from the client system, database updating means causes the proxy database to be repopulated with current subscriber data stored in or for at least one network element, to update the data in the proxy database.
Query means responsive to a query signal from the client system retrieves corresponding subscriber data from the proxy database and communicates the data to the client system.
Configuration means responsive to a network element configuration command signal from the client system translates the configuration command signal into a corresponding network element command signal, and communicates the network element command signal to a corresponding network element via the network interface means. The configuration means, upon receiving a corresponding item of subscriber data from the network element via the network interface means, (i) stores the corresponding item of subscriber data in the proxy database to update the database, and (ii) communicates a corresponding response message back to the client system.
Database synchronization means synchronizes the subscriber data stored in the proxy database with the corresponding subscriber data stored in or for the corresponding network element, by (i) downloading log files from the network element, (ii) parsing the log files to detect any changes in the corresponding subscriber data made by systems other than the element management system, (iii) transmitting network element commands to the network elements to retrieve the corresponding subscriber data from them, and (iv) updating the proxy database with the retrieved corresponding subscriber data.